Arnold Schwarzenegger Blueprint Trainer Day 32

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You may not often see someone as big as Arnold doing pull-ups for big reps in the gym, but chins were a crucial part of his training throughout his youth and competitive years. But he quickly learned that this fundamental movement wasn’t quite enough to build a complete bodybuilder’s back.

“When I met Roger Callard, Mr. Western America, he had been doing chin-ups his whole life,” he wrote in “The Education of a Bodybuilder.” “He had a wide back, but never a winning back. He could hit a straight-on back pose and nothing happened. A year ago I encouraged him to start rowing; as a result of his efforts he now wins the ‘best back’ in every contest.”

As the ultimate self-critic, Arnold felt that he still needed one more movement to maximize his own back development. He found it in the T-bar row, which was relatively new when he was captured doing it in the film “Pumping Iron.” His total back formula, which he laid out in “The Education,” was a three-pronged approach: “chin-ups work on width, bent-over rowing with the bar develops the center and lower back, and T-bar rowing develops the outside of the back and the lower lats.” It’s the perfect formula. Finish your back work strong with it today!

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